Mapping lesbian New York (Atlas Obscura)
by Reina Gattuso
Lesbians and trans people are often more financially precarious than their cisgender gay male counterparts, so their institutions often are, too. An interactive map created by a geographer shows how bars, activist spaces, and other institutions have come and gone in New York City.

The Texas storm hurt bats, too (Texas Monthly)
by Tara Haelle
One less-noticed victim of February’s devastating winter storm in Texas: bats. That’s good news for moths, bad news for crops, and…less of a big deal for mosquitoes than you might expect.

Teaching phones to smell (Vox)
by Noam Hassenfeld
We expect our phones to be able to see and hear with cameras and microphones. But what about smell? Scientists have been making progress toward robot noses, modeled partly on dogs who can sniff out cancer.

Unhappy birthday to the pandemic (Scientific American)
by Tanya Lewis
Last week marked the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration that COVID-19 had become a pandemic. What went wrong, and right, in how the United States responded?

Colonizing the Black city (Black Perspectives)
by Jessica Ann Levy
We often talk about white people and big companies “abandoning” inner cities in the twentieth century. But the metaphor of colonialism long used in Black activist circles might provide a better way to think about the treatment of these neighborhoods.

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